I know some tips have been posted before, but I just glanced then.
Now I have been filling up 50 gal bags. So before I go outside and spead into the woods, wondering if any good uses? Its all red oak chips from the jointer, planner and band saw.
I swiched out the oem clear bag from delta and have just been using standard 3 mil trash bags and then tying them up. The town transfer station does not accepts saw dust.
Thanks very much.
joep
Replies
I throw mine on the compost pile.....I also don't worry about the right ph, or acid /alkali blend of the it. sometimes if I'm tilling a small spot ,I blend them in with the soil....
.and there is the Boy Scout idea of mixing them with paraffin in little blocks and selling them as fire starters......
I like the parrafin idea. As I will not always be producing bags of dust at this rate. I think I will give this a try. Produce some logs for the fiireplace. My own use. Do you know the mixture ratio?
thanks joep
......E=mc2.....;>) can't remember exactly, the nephew made small batches in the paper ketchup cups stolen from Wendys but they needed to be a tad bigger, like a cole slaw cup from a restaurant.,they lasted longer when burning.....I would guess more shavings/dust,than wax.
.....they charged 10¢ each ..... I let them use my tool shed, so I only had to buy 24 boxes
Edited 1/24/2006 6:48 pm by maddog3
holy smokes, that will take me a year to get rid of the dust 1 cole slaw cup at a time. I was thinking more like packing a 4" pvc pipe about 18" long to get the shape and move it along.
thanks for the reply!
well crap .......give that a try , I used sch 80 to make some beeswax pillar candles for my sweetie...........it takes along time cool though
joepez -I use paper egg cartons to 'cast' my fire starters. They're easlily carried as a unit, either top or bottom half of the carton with each egg 'cup' packed with shavings then some melted parafin poured over each, allow to cool then the individual cups can be torn off and used as needed.
I did that for a few years too but gave it up when I found the "Firestarter" things in the grocery store for 60 cents. I can start at least a dozen fires with one and I don't have to mess around with parafin or sawdust. Besides, all the egg cartons I get anymore are styrofoam and it really stinks when it burns - lol.
I just made some for my son and his girlfriend. They go camping a lot and when they saw the piles of shavings from the planer their eyes lit up with the idea of making these fire starter thingies. So I made some, wrapped 'em up as a present and they were thrilled! (grin)Now, however, I wrap up shoe boxes full of shavings and let them make them themselves.
Except for walnut, my wife uses my shavings for mulch around her flowers.
http://www.superwoodworks.com
Composting is really the best way to go for large amounts of sawdust. If you "spread in the woods" beware that there may well be an adverse affect on that area. The shavings/sawdust will rob the soil of nitrogen where they are spread, a natural consequence of their decomposition.
forestgirl -- you can take the girl out of the forest, but you can't take the forest out of the girl ;-)
Another proud member of the "I Rocked With ToolDoc Club" .... :>)
should note that this is a temporary effect though. Sawdust is extremely nitrogen poor so it sucks up any available N as it breaks down but at the end of the cycle it releases it again. Also worth noting for others reading this, It's generally considered *not* a good idea to mix sawdust with garden soil as it will rob the N out of the soil until breakdown is complete and will starve your plants for a period.The effect isn't quite so strong if you are just top dressing though since it's just on the surface. As an added benifit, I suspect that part of the effectiveness that mulch has against weeds is that where there's mulch, there's not much N to go around so sprouting seeds have a hard time getting started.If you have a stinky compost pile (often caused by too much nitrogen) sawdust will fix your odor problem in a hurry.
I've read that if you want to compost sawdust, it's good to mix it with grass clippings.My goal is for my work to outlast me. Expect my joinery to get simpler as time goes by.
The grass clippings provide a nitrogen source (green in the "green + brown" equation). Horse manure (fresh, LOL) works great too.forestgirl -- you can take the girl out of the forest, but you can't take the forest out of the girl ;-) Do unto others as you tell them they should do unto you....
It's a good start, the problem is that sawdust is such a high carbon source that you need much more grass than sawdust to get what's considered a good ratio (about 25:1 to 35:1 carbon to nitrogen). grass is 27:1 and sawdust is anywhere from 200:1 to 500:1 so you see, grass is just about right already. Straight manure is a better bet (chicken 7:1, horse 18:1) above 40:1 you start to see the nitrogen immobilized and the compost reaction drops off.this is for sawdust from dry wood btw, green wood (wood chips from green branches) are much closer to grass though I don't have the number off hand.Honestly, I think the best use of it from a practical standpoint is to use it as a mulch, it makes it hard for weeds to thrive and when eventually it does break down, you get to use it as amendment in the end.
I give mine to a local farmer for bedding for his veal calves otherwise they probally have nothing ive noticed
another use is bedding for horses , i used to buy it for mine till i discovered i could leave them out all the time as long as they had shelter
"another use is bedding for horses" As always, it must be mentioned to avoid walnut shavings completely when bedding for horses. They are toxic and will cause laminitis -- a severe lameness that can lead to euthanasia in the worst cases.forestgirl -- you can take the girl out of the forest, but you can't take the forest out of the girl ;-)Another proud member of the "I Rocked With ToolDoc Club" .... :>)
Hey forestgirl,
Quick question about this subject. What about the aromatic cedar? I just didn't know about if it would be good. I do know that is a very good insect repellent.
Thanks
Doc*None of the secrets of success will work unless you do!
Learned about the walnut factor sometime ago , as a old ex smoker i also have some breathing problems at times , so i did the right thing and gave any walnut i had to a friend , better him than me . ps he knows about the risks concerning it
Hi, Dude. I figured you probably new about the link between walnut and laminitis in horses, but thought it best to mention it for others who drag this up from the archives -- you know, during one of those speed, effecient searches we might have available some day :-) Sorry, sysop, just had to.forestgirl -- you can take the girl out of the forest, but you can't take the forest out of the girl ;-)Another proud member of the "I Rocked With ToolDoc Club" .... :>)
I had the same problem. Lots of saw dust small yard. I actually started to compost, but the amount easily filled my little composter. Here are my solutions.
1. Lots of places around here will allow dumping 'clean fill' which hardwood sawdust would qualify as. There was a lot just down the road that got a majority of my sawdust.
2. City composting program receives some now as well.
3. A buddy of mine has a smoker which receives a large amount of my hand plane wood shavings.
4. Anything I sweep up off the shop/garage floor ends up in the garbage. Of course in black garbage bags...
Call a couple of the local stables near you. I worked for a lumber company and that's where the big burlap bags went. We were filling a couple every day and they were originally used when oregano (no, really) and cocoa beans were imported through the harbor here. It made us hungery for pizza or chocolate.
joepez, ceramicists take mine. They like the odd hardwoods for the different colors they get when firing raku pottery. Whatever else I have goes around fruit trees as mulch. aloha, mike
My neighbour gets mine and burns them in his air tight stove in his garage!
Mine goes to a farmer who uses it in his chicken coop, and as mulch in his orchard. (I don't send him any walnut)
I recall that some European made dust collectors have a compacting mechanism that produces brickets they use to heat their shops. Now that would be neat if it didn’t cost a mint. I understand this is basically a tube with a hydraulic piston to provide pressure. I wonder if they are using the thermo-plastic properties of the glue residue or if they use an additive?
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